Weapons used in Dec 16 gang-rape were shown to us: Doc to court

New Delhi: One of the doctors, who attended to the December 16 gang-rape victim, on Saturday told a fast track court here that the "nature of injuries" suffered by her can be caused by the weapons that were shown to them by the police.

The statement was made by the witness during his cross-examination by the counsel for accused Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta who had alleged the weapons were never shown to the doctors attending to the 23-year-old victim.

The girl, who was allegedly gang-raped by Vinay, Akshay and Pawan along with three others in a moving bus here, died in a Singapore hospital on December 29, last year.

The doctor, who had performed surgery on the victim, also refuted the allegation that he was deposing falsely and said the weapons (iron rods) used to commit the crime were shown to the doctors attending to the girl.

"Looking at the nature of injuries suffered by the victim in her private parts, in my opinion (they) can be caused by the weapons produced," he told Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna who is hearing the case on a day-to-day basis.

The proceedings were marred by a heated exchange of words between Special Public Prosecutor Dayan Krishnan and defence counsel Vivek Sharma, after Sharma accused Krishnan of tutoring the witness.

Krishnan vehemently objected to the accusation, saying "they can`t accuse me of tutoring if they don`t know how to ask questions".

The doctor, however, clarified that in his opinion given to the police "I had stated that the weapons produced before us could cause the said injuries. I had not stated anywhere that the injuries were caused by these two weapons."

The weapons were then produced in court and shown to the witness on the request of advocates Vivek Sharma and AP Singh, appearing for accused Pawan, Akshay and Vinay, as they wanted the doctor to identify the signatures on the rods.

The witness, after examining the rods, said that one of the signatures could be that of one of the doctors who had attended to the victim.